BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 79 



not one oi' them luade the attempt to escape by a short joiiruey over 

 hiud into the neighboring hxke or into the river Po. 



"The eel occnrs in all our waters, with the exception of small, rapid 

 brooks. The fishermen distinguish many varieties based upon the dif- 

 ferences in the form of the head or color and the varying j)roportions 

 in the length of the body and tail ; and the older ichthyologists have 

 followed their opinions without sufficient reason. 



" By rapid growth the eel attains the length of 24 to 30 inches, and 

 often a greater size. On account of their fat, which is very highly 

 flavored, and the absence of bones, they are everywhere valued, and are 

 caught in various ^\ ays. The most profitable method of capture is in 

 eel weirs and eel baskets and in traps by the use of nets, and on hooks 

 they are also caught in great quantities. In winter many eels are taken 

 with spears on the shelving shores where they lie buried in the mud in 

 a state of torpidity. In this fishery very often more are wounded than 

 captured, and, in addition to the large eels, great quantities of small 

 ones are taken." 



VIII. Ancient beliefs concerning the reproduction of the 



EEL. 



The reproduction of the eel, continues Benecke, has been an unsolved 

 riddle since the time of Aristotle, and has given rise to the most won- 

 derful conjectures and assertions. Leaving out of question the old 

 theories that the eels are generated from slime, from dew, from horse- 

 hair, from the skins of the old eels, or from those of snakes, and the 

 question as to whether they are produced by the female of the eel or by 

 that of some other species of fish, it has for centuries been a question of 

 dispute whether the eel is an egg-laying animal or whether it produces 

 its young alive ; although the fishermen believe that they can tell the 

 male and female eels by the form of the snout. A hundred years ago 

 no man had ever found the sexual organs in the eel. 



Jacoby has remarked that the eel was from the earliest times a riddle 

 to the Greeks ; while ages ago it was known by them at what periods all 

 other kinds of fishes laid their eggs, such discoveries were never made 

 with reference to the eel, though thousands upon thousands were yearly 

 applied to culinary uses. The Greek poets, following the usage of their 

 day, which was to attribute to Jupiter all children whose paternity was 

 doubtful, were accustomed to say that Jupiter was also progenitor of the 

 eel. 



" When we bear in mind," writes Jacobj', " the veneration in which 

 Aristotle was held in ancient times, and still more throughout the mid- 

 dle ages — a period of nearly two thousand years — it could not be other- 

 wise than that this wonderful statement should be believed and that it 

 should be embellished by numerous additional legends and ami>lifica- 

 tions, many of which have held their own in the popular mind until the 

 present day. There is no animal concerning whose origin and existence 



